The Elusive Mideast Peace

Over time, these five steps have the chance of transforming conditions on the ground. Certainly, we would soon know whether the territories controlled by Palestinians can avoid again becoming hothouses for terrorism.

There is much room for skepticism on that last requirement. With Gaza now under the control of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, it is hard to envisage how Fatah could regain authority. Yet stopping the violence there is essential. A truce that applies only to the West Bank is inconsistent. As President Bush acknowledged, what is on the table is the establishment of two states for two peoples and not three states for two peoples.

For sure, the challenges to a successful outcome are truly daunting and will not be overcome if the facts and the history are forgotten. The amnesia that marks most debates about the Mideast brings to mind the observation of the physicist Leo Szilard, who announced to a friend, Hans Bethe, that he was thinking of keeping a diary. "I don't intend to publish it. I am really going to record the facts for the information of God." Bethe asked, "Don't you think God knows the facts?" "Yes," said Szilard. "He knows the facts. But he does not know this version of the facts."